Minner Trappin'
by Jim Graham,
SouthWestern Michigan Aquarium Society. From SWAM, March/April 2002 Issue
Aquarticles
Three or four years ago I joined the North American Native Fish Association after
seeing an ad for their annual convention. I joined with the intent of learning information
on breeding native fish. An offshoot of this was getting interested in collecting natives,
because if you are going to breed them you need to collect them. Seines, dip-nets, and
minnow traps are some of the methods used for collecting natives.
I have been playing around with minnow traps for a couple of years and have learned a
few things as far as methods. I started out using them in the lake where I live, and
following the directions that came with the traps, I used bread for bait. I didn't catch
many fish, but a lot of snails. The only fish I caught were small bluegills and sunfish
that I released. I never caught any minnows out of my lake and I haven't figured out why,
as I know there are minnows in the lake.
This past summer I expanded my minnow trapping to several small creeks in the area. You
never know where you will get fish until you try, as there are several likely looking
places where I have never been able to catch anything. Some of the spots that I've gotten
a lot of fish out of just didn't look promising, but proved otherwise.
You have to be in a stealth mode when you are putting your traps out, so they don't get
stolen or pilfered. I tie a long string to the traps, and either just lay it in the weeds,
or tie it to some weeds. If you use rope someone will invariably spot it, and mess with
your traps. Dave Hemmerlein has found his traps pulled out the last few times he has gone
back to check on them. The other thing is to try to put them out when traffic is at a
minimum, as several times I've had people stop and ask me what I was doing. Setting them
out in crummy weather helps, too. I usually set them out in the late afternoon, and pick
them up the next morning. I have started using a combination of Game fish Chow, dry cat
food, and dry dog food for bait.
When I go to check the traps I take a cooler or two with six inches of water in them to
store my catch, as I don't want to dilly-dally at the site. Sometimes you'll get three or
four fish, and sometimes you'll get a hundred. I have caught frogs and crayfish in
addition to the fish. I have trapped Sticklebacks, Northern Red-Bellied Dace, Black-Nosed
Dace, Creek Chubs, Blunt-Nosed Minnows, and several of what I call little silver fish. The
little silver fish are some kind of unidentified shiner. Some day I will figure out what
they are, but for now my shiner identification skills are pretty limited.
|